<?php
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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Chocolate &amp; Cocaine',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<p>
	As I said yesterday, I think I have over a month left to decide if I should get the MetroPCS plan.
	However, at this point, I&apos;m fairly certain I am getting it.
	The main deciding factor is probably my mother.
	She has been preasuring me to get $a[SMS] messaging back on my device, and if I choose the T-Mobile tablet plan, I won&apos;t have $a[SMS] messaging.
	Personally, I hate $a[SMS] messaging.
	However, strait up email uses up her limited data plan and due to a <a href="https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/783773?start=0&amp;tstart=0">Verizon bug</a>, the Verizon $a[SMS] gateway doesn&apos;t play nicely with her iPhone.
	As much as I would love to tell her she needs to either switch to a better carrier, or switch to a better device, or just deal with the bug, I don&apos;t need to be going out of my way to lose her favor.
	If I can stay on her good side, it would probably be best.
</p>
<p>
	There are other reasons to go with the MetroPCS plan though.
	If MetroPCS keeps this plan available longer than two and a half years (an explanation of why that time frame is important is below), I&apos;ll feel pretty dumb paying for more expensive service.
	Even if the plan is not available for registration at that point, existing plans may still continue to function at that price.
	It would be nice to have such an inexpensive plan indefinitely.
	Furthermore, it will be an adventure.
	If this goes well, I get a quick victory.
	Not much to write about, but it will be nice.
	If it doesn&apos;t go well, I potentially get a lot of weblog fuel as I haggle with them.
	I&apos;ll also learn whether MetroPCS locks their $a[SIM] cards or not.
	While it will be too late for me to make a decision based on the knowledge I gain from already having made the decision, it may prove useful to someone else.
</p>
<p>
	There are down sides to consider in regards to getting the MetroPCS plan as well.
	I recrunched the numbers, and as I said before, if the alternative to the MetroPCS tablet plan is a smartphone plan, the tablet will pay for itself in ten months.
	After that, my bill will be cut in half.
	However, if it is instead possible to get onto the T-Mobile tablet plan using my &quot;non-tablet&quot; device, I only save five dollars per month instead of fifteen by choosing the MetroPCS plan.
	At that point, the tablet pays for itself instead in two and a half years, after which I save five dollars per month.
	There&apos;s potentially a lot less gain than I originally implied.
	Furthermore, this tablet won&apos;t even be useful to me as an actual device, as it is incapable of running Replicant.
	Basically, all use of the tablet will revolve around using its serial number to do things.
	In essence, I&apos;ll be paying \$150 $a[USD] for a serial number and nothing more.
	That seems a bit steep.
	Lastly, the MetroPCS plan comes with $a[SMS] messaging.
	This is a definite down side.
	I don&apos;t want to be reachable by $a[SMS], as $a[SMS] is an incredibly inferior way to communicate.
	I don&apos;t like it.
	It is aggravating not being able to use an actual keyboard when I&apos;m at home.
	By email, I can use a keyboard if I have it and a tiny touch screen if I don&apos;t.
	By $a[SMS], I&apos;m stuck with the tiny touch screen no matter what.
</p>
<p>
	I updated ownCloud today, mostly following the instructions made available in the <a href="https://doc.owncloud.org/server/8.0/admin_manual/maintenance/upgrade.html">manual</a>.
	However, I didn&apos;t think anything would go wrong, so I didn&apos;t back up the ownCloud server&apos;s data before starting.
	Apparently I have not yet learned my lesson about data loss.
	After the update, all the ownCloud &quot;applications&quot; were missing from the interface! I feared their absence meant the data stored by these applications was lost.
	There isn&apos;t any data that I really use in the default setup, so that would mean all meaningful data had been erased from the server (I still would have it on the client though, so I could hurry and get it back before it was lost for good).
	However, re-enabling the ownCloud modules made the data visible again, showing it was not lost.
</p>
<p>
	The payment to Josh Woodward through Patreon went through finally, so I can rest easy about that.
	Speaking of music, it&apos;s was about time for me to buy another album, which I&apos;ve gotten in the habit of doing about twice each month.
	I stopped by Lorenzo&apos;s Music&apos;s website hoping to score a copy of Bazar, but on their homepage, I saw a link to a new song they have called <a href="http://www.lorenzosmusic.com/p/choc.html">Chocolate &amp; Cocaine</a>.
	Both the paid and gratis download options are provided through <a href="https://cashmusic.org/">CASH Music</a>, a service I was unfamiliar with.
	Fearing CASH Music only provides MP3 files and not wanting to pay for MP3 files (I much prefer Vorbis and $a[FLAC] files), I chose the gratis download option, planning to go back and pay for it if a reasonable music format was provided.
	Indeed, the file was available in MP3 format only.
	With few exceptions, I refuse to buy MP3 files because the format is proprietary.
	Besides, Vorbis files have higher sound quality than MP3 files while still having a smaller file size.
	It&apos;s a beautiful song, and I recommend hearing it, but I went back to plan A: buy <a href="http://lorenzosmusic.bandcamp.com/album/bazar">Bazar</a> from Bandcamp.
	It appears that Chocolate &amp; Cocaine is still in the demo phase, so when it is finished, it will likely be made available on Bandcamp with Vorbis and $a[FLAC] files available.
</p>
<p>
	PayPal was being a pain again, refusing to allow me to make the purchase without a PayPal account.
	The problem is that PayPal tries to detect what country you are in and tries to prevent users in some countries from making purchases without an account.
	After several $a[Tor] resets and attempts to initiate the transaction, I was finally presented with the accountless transaction page.
</p>
<p>
	My guess is that PayPal has faced greater resistance to their insistence that users create an account from citizens of some countries than others.
	In countries with greater resistance, PayPal probably provides the account-free option to avoid losing as much money, but in countries with less resistance, PayPal probably tries to get more users to create an account by not allowing them to avoid doing so.
	My resistance to creating a PayPal account is their own fault though.
	When I had an account, I had to argue with support for two months because they refused to allow me to make a single purchase and refused to delete my account, remove my credit card information from my account, or make an accountless purchase with a card tied to an account.
	During this period, PayPal kept demanding that I give them unfettered access to my bank account (which my credit union advised <strong>*against*</strong> doing, on the grounds that PayPals demand made them seem hokey) and copies of my Social Security card, photo $a[ID], bank statements, credit card statements, and a utility bill in my name.
	I provided the photo $a[ID], Social Security card (I know, I shouldn&apos;t have done that),and credit card statement.
	I explained that I&apos;m not the one paying for utilities here, so there does not exist a utility bill in my name and that they could not have my bank account statements because my bank account was not relevant to my payments, as I was paying by credit card.
	I figured that there was enough information on my bank statement for them to glean the information they needed to get the unfettered access they wanted to my account, so I was not going to risk that.
	Though they said they unlocked my account, every time I logged in or tried to use the account, it would still be locked and PayPal was once again demanding all the things it demanded before.
	After several iterations, they finally agreed to close the account, but I was never able to make a purchase with it.
	The account was quite useless to me and cause a lot of grief.
	Without an account though, purchases usually go smoothly, and when they don&apos;t, I can try back later, and they eventually go through.
	Having a PayPal account is not a viable option for me.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
END
);
